Ranch Horn (Confessions of a Wasteland Pony)
Ranch Horn is a character''' in the audio drama Confessions of a Wasteland Pony.' His story is told by Freezie in the sixth episode, The Ice Mare. Biography Early Life Ranch Horn was born into the Equestrian Army Chemical Corps around 170 years after The Great War. The pre-war bunker he lived in, beneath Fort Deadtree, was an extremely isolated society. All of their knowledge of the surface world was fed to them by the few elite expedition parties allowed to travel the surface. Because of this, he had only seen the surface a small number of times growing up. During all of those occasions, they were not allowed to leave the perimeter fence of the pre-war airfield. Eventually, Ranch Horn reached the rank of First Lieutenant, high enough to get the opportunity to join Colonel Baker on a surface mission. He did a few limited scope supply missions, which required them to battle with feral ghouls. Fighting these ghouls helped confirm the social conditioning instilled in him that all of the creatures on the surface were mindless or soulless monsters standing in the way of the healing of the land. These type of missions were common of new recruits being groomed into one of the expedition teams. Ranch Horn soon found himself in a much more critical mission based on something Colonel Baker had found on a spell matrix they'd recovered. Within a few hours, he found himself on a very long flight to the distant Northern Crystal Commonwealth. They were attempting to recover someone from a cryogenic tank, who might be able to access the Ivory Labs Headquarters Tower. Ranch Horn was learning of their exploits on the surface much quicker than was normal for new recruits. Meeting Freezie To everyone's surprise, the mare they pulled from the tank was not covered in horrible mutations. She was a seemingly normal unicorn. At this point, an alarm began sounding and Colonel Baker said they had to hurry. Ranch Horn helped pull the various hoses and IVs out of her body and the group galloped back to their ship. They were only a few hundred feet away from the derelict hospital when its reactor erupted in a brilliant green explosion. After being woken up by the Colonel, the mare (Frozen Peaks), was left in Ranch Horn's care. He gave her a tour around Fort Deadtree, and talked with her about some of her impressive exploits before the war. In the short time he spent with her, he greatly enjoyed their conversations. She was a beacon of something beyond Fort Deadtree, a relic from before the war that was not like the monstrous ghouls which populate the surface. It was the first hint to him that not everyone on the surface was a lost cause. The next day, they would take Freezie to the Ivory Labs HQ Tower to infiltrate it. Only she would be able to survive the deadly Re-Agent that filled the building. In a conversation with her on the flight over, she made him reconsider his thoughts on the raiders they had fought occasionally. While violent and unstable, there was a world of difference between raiders and feral ghouls. Becoming Dissident During her mission, Ranch Horn was shocked to see the the Ivory Labs building explode from a reactor detonation. He was shocked by the reaction from Colonel Baker and the other crew, none of them considered her safety, but the potential loss of the information they were seeking. Ivory Labs was the key to unlocking the secrets of the Re-Agent formula, in such a way that they could kill large amounts of ghouls and other creatures without harming themselves. To make matters worse, upon returning to the Fort, the Colonel and the others were now accusing her of betraying them. He was unaware that there was anyone out there she could collude with, or why she might do that at all. It was in those frank and passionate reactions that Ranch Horn learned the cold truths to what the expedition teams had been doing on the surface. There were whole communities of ghouls who weren't monsters, who hadn't lost their minds, that the Chemical Corps had completely wiped out without mercy. There were mixed communities among the so-called raiders who had families, and children, and were none-the-less burned indiscriminately with fire or even Re-Agent. Ranch Horn kept his mouth shut, but was slowly realizing who were the "bad guys" in the situation. Hours later, late into the evening, they were quickly deployed again. Colonel Baker said they had found her, and the saboteur she had been influenced by. Their ships landed near the ruins of a town called Savanneigh. The look of the ruins was clear. While it was damaged during the Great War, it had been heavily firebombed very recently. He knew that most likely it was because of them. They confronted the two, following the Colonel's lead. The saboteur was an unassuming unicorn mare named Pink Pippin. She would go on to accuse all of them of mass murdering her friends and family in Savanneigh, confirming Ranch Horn's fears. Colonel Baker did not deny, and the others stayed silent. Eventually, the two mares were able to hold themselves hostage, threatening to kill themselves. It would destroy the knowledge that they were now the sole possessors of if the Colonel didn't take them to new location where Freezie's lost lover, Chrysanthemum, was supposedly waiting. The Colonel obliged, letting Freezie fly the ship while they discussed how they would capture her and torture the two of them to get the information out of them. Something broke inside of Ranch Horn, and he knew he had to get away from them. Once they landed at the Blue Ridge Hospital, they discovered Chysanthemum alive and unmutated. The wheels had already begun turning in Colonel Baker's head about how he could use him against Freezie to make her talk. Ranch Horn faced an all or nothing decision. He knew he had to react now if he was to react at all. In a swift motion, he pulled his service pistol and shot Colonel Baker through the back of the head, then killed the two other guards that were there with them. He surrendered himself to Freezie and Pinkin, wishing to defect completely and keep them safe instead. After a tense few moments, they agreed and the group took one of the moored airships. An intense aerial battle followed, but they would be victorious. Ranch Horn and his three new companions would travel around the wasteland as nomads for the next three years, until Freezie was inspired to tell their story on DJ Pony's new interview show, Confessions of a Wasteland Pony. Quotes * ''"'You should go easy on yourself ma’am... We’ve all lost ships, or failed operations at one time or another. You helped keep the Northern Crystal Commonwealth out of Zebra control until the end of the war. And, I mean… You literally went down with your ship. That old adage never said you had to die with it…"' - Freezie (paraphrasing Ranch Horn's words of encouragement)' * "'We looked at the remaining Chem-Trooper. A one inch caliber pistol floated in place by the unicorn’s head. This remaining soldier had executed all three of them. The gun quivered in the air like there was an earthquake... The unicorn pulled off his helmet. It was Ranch Horn. Tears were rolling down his face. He had just made the hardest decision of his life."' - Freezie (describing the moment Ranch Horn turned on the Chemical Corps)' Behind The Scenes * "Ranch Horn" as a name is derived from the U.S. chemical warfare program called "Operation Ranch Hand." This was the program developed to deforest the jungles of Vietnam with a variety of strong chemical herbicides. The most infamous chemical used being Agent Orange. This is also the reason Ranch Horn's coat is orange. * The Equestrian Army Chemical Corps logo featuring on his suit is a recolor of the real world counterpart. Ranch Horn's specific cutie mark has not been stated in the series to date. * The Ice Mare story was heavily inspired by the chemical weapons and Vietnam War in general. Ranch Horn as a character is almost "lost to it" in the sense that had it not been for Freezie he may not have had a moral crossroads moment before it was too late. * His story is inspired by the morality questions at play in Vietnam-era stories like "Apocalypse Now." Category:EAST Corp Productions Category:Confessions of a Wasteland Pony Category:Characters (Confessions of a Wasteland Pony)